This
report confirms previous study results demonstrating the usefulness of
trace data in policing illicit firearms. The data show that
jurisdictions with gun regulations appear to recover fewer illicitly
distributed weapons compared to jurisdictions without regulations. The
authors present conclusions suggesting more regulation will reduce the
availability and distribution of illicit firearms. The
findings have some limitations. The unit of analysis is limited to guns
recovered by law enforcement and submitted to ATF for tracing between
2003-2006, but the system of tracing has changed significantly in recent
years. Also, the guns submitted in this study generally are referred to
in the report as “crime guns” although the data indicate that more than
75 percent of the weapons in the study were not used directly in the
commission of a crime, but were recovered in the process of law
enforcement apprehension, investigation or Search & Seizure, buy
backs, and other confiscations.

Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets: A Case Study of Los Angeles (pdf, 92 pages)Authors: Greg Ridgeway, Glenn L. Pierce, Anthony A. Braga, George Tita, Garen Wintemute, Wendell RobertsAuthors' Abstract:In
2001, with the support of a grant from the National Institute of
Justice, RAND initiated a research and program-development effort to
understand the nature of illegal gun markets operating in the city of
Los Angeles, California. The primary goal of this project was to
determine whether a data-driven, problem-solving approach could yield
new interventions aimed at disrupting the workings of local, illegal gun
markets serving criminals, gang members, and juveniles in Los Angeles.The
authors created a new software tool to help law enforcement analyze
patterns in crime-gun data and identify and trace illicit pathways by
which criminals acquire guns. Second, the findings were incorporated
into an interagency working-group process that developed a
community-based intervention designed to disrupt the illegal flow of
guns to Los Angeles-area criminals; this intervention may had an impact
on straw purchasing. Key participants in the working group included the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Los Angeles
Police Department; the U.S. Attorney's Office; state and city
prosecutors; academics; and other criminal-justice agencies. Finally,
they assessed the utility of retail ammunition-purchase records in
identifying prohibited firearm possessors, recommending a cost-benefit
analysis on this measure. Source: National Institute of Justice (United States)